Power to be surplus in city by 2011-12, contends Sheila
Makes a strong pitch for grant of full statehood to Delhi
New Delhi, December 9
The Chief Minister of Delhi, Ms Sheila Dikshit, today claimed that electric power would be in surplus in the national Capital by the year 2011-12, as the government was taking ‘bold initiative’ for reforms.

Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit and Finance Minister A. K. Walia attending the 52nd meeting of National Development Council at Vigyan Bhawan.
— A Tribune photograph

Radio taxis for Games 2010
New Delhi, December 9
The national Capital will have a pool of radio taxis available round-the-clock before the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
This was stated by Delhi Transport Minister Haroon Yusuf while flagging off the first batch of the new taxis on Friday.

MCD Budget: Rs 76 cr allocated for greenery
New Delhi, December 9
The Municipal Commissioner, Mr A. K. Nigam, in an estimated budget proposal of the MCD for the year 2007-2008, has allocated Rs 76 crore for developing greenery and maintenance of parks in the Capital in view of the Commonwealth Games 2010.

Discom plans Voluntary Disclosure Scheme
New Delhi, December 9
To curb power theft in the Capital, power distribution company BSES plans to launch a Voluntary Disclosure Scheme
(VDS) in East Delhi and Central Delhi.
Under the scheme, consumers stealing power through tampering of meters would be encouraged to inform the department about the same and get away after payment of a nominal penalty. Since BSES in turn would not file any criminal case with the police, it expects that the scheme would go a long way in cleaning up the distribution system.

‘Haryana to get additional 900 MW of power’
Faridabad, December 9
The shortage of power in Haryana is likely to end in fewer than two years when the state gets an additional 900 MW of power. The power generation capacity of the state would be increased in the coming years as work on several projects has been going on.

New Delhi, December 9
An ambitious public-private partnership health campaign was launched from the most backward district of Mewat in Haryana on December 9. The campaign – Healthy Haryana – has been jointly organised by the Red Cross Society of India and the Haryana Government, in association with NGOs and several reputed public and private hospitals.Governor of Haryana A. R. Kidwai is accompanied by MP from Rohtak Deepinder Singh Hooda at the launch ceremony of Healthy Haryana campaign in Mewat on Saturday.
— Tribune photograph

Traders form panel to examine sealing issues
New Delhi, December 9
In the wake of an announcement by the Union Government to introduce Master Plan 2021 before January 31,2007, the Confederation of All India Traders
(CAIT) has constituted a ‘Traders Special Task Force’ to chalk out remedial measures to deal with problems being faced by the community on account of sealing and several other trade-related issues.

Children have a look at a collection of oldest coin and currency notes on exhibit at Bapu Seva Sadan organised by Delhi Coin Society.
— Tribune photo by Rajeev Tyagi

Gang of vehicle thieves busted, two held
New Delhi, December 9
The South district police today claimed to have busted a gang of vehicle thieves, with the arrest of two members of the gang – Mukesh (23) and Sanju (25) from near Sangam Vihar crossing.

IT SEZs to lead to employment boom: Experts
Noida, December 9
IT Special Economic Zones (SEZs) will soon bring about an employment boom in the National Capital Region (NCR), feel the IT experts.
IT experts feel that IT SEZs will not only bring influx of foreign investment into Noida and Greater Noida, but will also bring about an employment boom in the area. The IT company chiefs are of the view that these IT SEZs should be developed fast.

Noida Health Officer, Additional CMO clash
Noida, December 9
Controversies have often been part of government district hospital in Sector 30, Noida—sometimes over lack of equipment, medicines, power cuts, dilapidated building and at times over the issue of adjusting twice the number of staff members against half the sanctioned posts.

Dhaba waiter shot at for refusing food
Noida, December 9
The owner of a liquor shop, on being refused food at a
dhabha, fired a gunshot at the waiter who is dangling between life and death in a hospital. The owner of the liquor shop fled from the scene after wounding the waiter.

BSNL’s STD services out of order in Noida
Noida, December 9
The STD services of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) have suddenly gone down, causing a lot of inconvenience to the public. The BSNL authorities came to know about it only after the subscribers lodged complaints regarding the failure of the services.

Photography exposition ends today
New Delhi, December 9
The fourth edition of South Asia’s largest exhibition on photography and imaging, which began on Thursday, would come to an end tomorrow.
It had been inaugurated by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in a ceremony in which the guest of honor was Mr Shahidul Alam, online publisher, media activist and photo-journalist.

New Delhi, December 9
The Chief Minister of Delhi, Ms Sheila Dikshit, today claimed that electric power would be in surplus in the national Capital by the year 2011-12, as the government was taking ‘bold initiative’ for reforms.

Addressing the meeting of the National Development Council (NDC), the Chief Minister claimed that “bold initiative” that her government had taken in power sector reforms by unbundling the state electricity entity had resulted in bringing down transmission losses from 52 per cent in 2000 to 36 per cent in 2005.

It was expected to be brought down to 20 per cent in the next two years, she said.

She said that various power plants dedicated to meet the requirements of Delhi were in various stages of execution. And the government would add 8, 28 MW of power, thereby enhancing the power availability in the Capital to 12, 917 MW by 2011-12, which would make Delhi power surplus, she said.

With the Commonwealth Games to be held in 2010 in sight, Ms Dikshit said that her government’s approach to the 11th Five Year Plan was towards development with a human face and making Delhi a global city.

The CM made a strong pitch for grant of statehood to Delhi to enable smooth progress of work to make it a global city, saying that multiplicity of authorities had become a bane of the citizens.

The Delhi Government often found itself helpless in addressing problems of the people due to lack of powers over the multiple helplessness that the conundrum of sharing power and governing Delhi had to be solved urgently, Ms Dikshit said.

Noting the improving public safety, especially for women, was a matter of great concern, the Chief Minister said that the Delhi Police should concentrate on core police functions and shed the additional burden of licensing and other activities.

Referring to the development of National Capital Region, the Chief Minister was critical of the neighbouring states, saying that the state governments had not made any headway because of lack of commitment towards implementing Regional Plans.

Ms Dikshit also made a call to other states in the region to cooperate in the cleaning of the Yamuna in the Capital by way of release of water.

She was also critical of other states for over drawing from the power grid. Calling for urgent steps in this regard, she said that grid failure could otherwise become a regular feature and adversely affect the quality of power distribution in the Capital.

Referring to the Commonwealth Games, she said that her government had already worked out its schedule for timely completion of all identified projects and could do a similar preparation for Asian Games, 2014.

New Delhi, December 9
The Municipal Commissioner, Mr A. K. Nigam, in an estimated budget proposal of the MCD for the year 2007-2008, has allocated Rs 76 crore for developing greenery and maintenance of parks in the Capital in view of the Commonwealth Games 2010.

Tabling the proposals before the House of the corporation, the Municipal Commissioner said that the government had assured to develop the Capital as the world class city.

Maintaining parks and growing saplings for developing greenery is the job of the MCD. Fulfilling the government’s commitment, the MCD had allocated Rs 76 crore for this purpose, he said.

Special attention would be given on trans-Yamuna areas which were lacking parks and recreation places, he added.

The MCD is already maintaining 14,000 parks. Some parks have been left for organising marriage and other social functions.

Flaying the corporation for allocating that much amount for parks, the Leader of Opposition in the MCD, Mr Subhash Arya said the job of MCD was to maintain parks, not to develop them.

“The corporation is already having 14,000 parks in various areas of the Capital in which thousands of tube wells have been bored. Of them, 800 tube wells are not functioning. The government does not have budget to repair the non-functional tube wells. It is very surprising how the Congress-ruled corporation is planning to develop new parks,” he pointed out.

The horticulture department is facing a shortage of staff. There are 12 zones. “There should be one Assistant Director in each zone to look after the gardening. However, at present, the corporation has only two Assistant Directors,” Mr Arya said.

He said that this budget had been allocated to woo the voters in the forthcoming corporation election.

He alleged that the Congress-ruled corporation was deceiving the citizens of the Capital. “In the budget proposals, the MCD claimed that no new taxes are being levied. But it has proposed to make the tax double on commercial buildings and buildings that have been rented,” he claimed.

New Delhi, December 9
To curb power theft in the Capital, power distribution company BSES plans to launch a Voluntary Disclosure Scheme (VDS) in East Delhi and Central Delhi.

Under the scheme, consumers stealing power through tampering of meters would be encouraged to inform the department about the same and get away after payment of a nominal penalty. Since BSES in turn would not file any criminal case with the police, it expects that the scheme would go a long way in cleaning up the distribution system.

The scheme will be implemented only for the registered customers of BSES who have been stealing power by way of meter tampering. It will not cover people who indulge in direct theft of power by hooking from the cables.

Meanwhile, BSES has completed its Distribution Transformer Metering work that has made it possible for the discom to precisely pinpoint power theft in a given pocket.

Armed with this data, BSES has increased the intensity and frequency of its raids.

Under VDS, BSES will offer a one-time opportunity to its customers involved in theft of power to voluntarily confess to the same and in lieu of this the discom will adopt a lenient and a sympathetic approach.

Under the scheme, if a person confesses to the crime, criminal proceedings will not be initiated and only a penalty will have to be paid which too will be at reduced rates. The prescribed penalty rate on the other hand is five times the normal rates for a period of six months in addition to criminal liability.

So the penalty becomes almost 30 times the normal bill. After the declaration of theft, the meter will also be regularised.

To build up support for the campaign, which has been introduced on the lines of the VDS introduced by the Income Tax Department some years ago, BSES will soon be sending letters to Residents’ Welfare Associations and municipal councillors, intimating them about the scheme.

A pilot scheme is being launched in parts of East Delhi as also Karol Bagh, Paharganj, Darya Ganj and Chandni Chowk. It will later be extended to all the areas covered by the discom.

The move assumes significance since it comes in the wake of coercive measures adopted to bring down the incidence of power theft.

Since July 2002, BSES has booked over 46,000 cases of power theft and unearthed a power theft load of over 2.8 lakh KW. Since January 2002, BSES Rajdhani Power Limited and BSES Yamuna Power Limited have filed over 1,050 and 1,600 cases respectively in the Special Courts set up for adjudicating power theft cases.—Agencies

Faridabad, December 9
The shortage of power in Haryana is likely to end in fewer than two years when the state gets an additional 900 MW of power. The power generation capacity of the state would be increased in the coming years as work on several projects has been going on.

He said the state government had given its nod to start work of various projects aimed at raising the production and supply of power to at least 12000 MW in the next five years.

He said while the state had been facing a power supply crunch owing to total generation capacity of 3400 MW daily against a demand of over 4200 MW.

Describing the recent hike in power tariff as minor, he said the government would pay back in terms of proper supply and better infrastructure to the consumers.

He said the only target before the Hooda government was to make the state self-sufficient in power sector.

He said while the plant at Yamunanagar would be able to generate about 600 MW of power in 2008, the state would get another 300 MW from a private sector plant which was coming up at Amarkantak in Chhatisgarh state in that year.

The government had entered into an agreement with a company to get supply for 25 years, he added.

He said while it would help tide over the crisis, the government had started to separate the rural and urban feeders by 2008 to ensure that there was at least 18 to 20 hours of supply daily in both areas. The average supply in rural areas in the state was around 7 to 8 hours daily.

According to Vidrohi, the supply of power in the state would go up sharply after some of the power projects start production in 2010. These include thermal-based 1500 MW plant at Jharli in Jhajjar and 1000 MW plant at Hisar, which were likely to be commissioned in next four years. He announced that Haryana had entered into agreement with both the government and private sectors to get another 6756 MW of power by 2011-12.

It is stated that if all the new gas projects go on time, the state would have surplus power in the next few years as the total generation capacity of these plants had been 4515 MW. The average daily supply of power in Haryana had been 622 and 714 lakh units in 2005-06 and 2006-07 respectively in comparison to 556 and 578 MW during 2003-04 and 2004-05 respectively.

New Delhi, December 9
An ambitious public-private partnership health campaign was launched from the most backward district of Mewat in Haryana on December 9. The campaign – Healthy Haryana – has been jointly organised by the Red Cross Society of India and the Haryana Government, in association with NGOs and several reputed public and private hospitals.

The campaign, launched by the Haryana Governor, Mr
A.R. Kidwai, through a two-day multi-specialty health camp at Al-Afia Hospital in Mandhikhera aims to provide free-of-cost medical care facilities to all districts in the state within the span of next six months through multi-specialty camps.

The Rohtak MP, Mr Deepinder Singh Hooda, who was recently elected member of the National Managing Body of the Red Cross Society of India, said the campaign would run across the state on the village-to-village basis.

In the first phase, seven districts will be covered, followed by other districts in the state. The campaign was beginning from Mewat because this part of the state needed better healthcare facilities, Mr Hooda said.

Patients are being provided specialty services such as cardiology, medicine, surgery, oncology, gynaecology,
opthalmology, paediatric, orthopaedics, radiology and nephrology in the camp.

Health education and awareness are also being provided to people during the camp, which is open to public between 9 am and 4 pm. Wheel chairs, artificial limbs spectacles are being distributed to needy patients free of cost. Apart from this, free medicines are also to be provided. A health card is also being issued, which will be reviewed after a fortnight.

For a backward district like Mewat, the camp could only be a short-term measure, however, the Rohtak MP hopes that the first-hand experience of the ground reality in Mewat could become a learning experience in rectifying existing problems in the district.

Later, he also hopes to take up a campaign to spread awareness about improving the dismal male:female ratio and improving the status of the girl child in the state.

New Delhi, December 9
In the wake of an announcement by the Union Government to introduce Master Plan 2021 before January 31,2007, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has constituted a ‘Traders Special Task Force’ to chalk out remedial measures to deal with problems being faced by the community on account of sealing and several other trade-related issues.

Mr Praveen Khandelwal, CAIT secretary general, said that ‘Traders Special Task Force’ would be chaired by Mr Murli Mani, an eminent trade leader, while noted architect and town planner, Mr S. C. Jain, and an expert on DDA matters, Mr A. K. Dev, would serve the task force as technical members.

Leading trade leaders Mr Suresh Bindal, Mr Anil Kapoor and Mr Atul Bhargava will be other members of the task force, besides CAIT Delhi state president, Mr Ramesh Khanna, and general secretary, Mr Narender Madan, who will act as ex-officio members of the task force.

Mr Khandelwal said that the task force was assigned the job to examine various aspects that included regularisation of all business establishments that existed as on December 31, 2005, remedial measures to deal with increasing parking problems and removal of encroachments.

It would also consider ways and means to protect centuries old distributive character of Delhi Trade and development of wholesale and retail business of Delhi, he said, adding that after making in-depth study, the task force would prepare its exhaustive report by December 25.

The CAIT secretary general further informed that the report of the task force would be submitted to the Urban Development Minister Mr Jaipal Reddy, his State Minister, Mr Ajay Maken, the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Mr B. L. Joshi, and Chief Minister Ms Shiela Diskhit and the senior BJP leader and in-charge of Delhi affairs, Mr V. K. Malhotra.

New Delhi, December 9
The South district police today claimed to have busted a gang of vehicle thieves, with the arrest of two members of the gang – Mukesh (23) and Sanju (25) from near Sangam Vihar crossing.

Five ‘stolen’ motorcycles have allegedly been recovered from their possession.

After a brief chase, the duo was apprehended when it tried to escape from the police check post near Sangam Vihar police picket.

During interrogation, they allegedly confessed to having involved in many vehicle theft cases.

According to the police, wherever the thieves found any isolated vehicle, they would open the lock with the help of duplicate keys. They used to keep the stolen vehicles in parking lots and after a few days, the vehicles were driven to desired destinations in different districts of UP, the police said.

In another incident, the district police claimed to have busted another gang of robbers with the arrest of four members of the gang – Vishal (22), Aakash (23), Vijay (32) and Vinod (23) from Badarpur area.

A country-made pistol along with two live cartridges, six mobile phones, one ‘stolen’ luxury car and two knives have allegedly been recovered from their possession.

Following a tip-off, they were apprehended. However, taking the cover of darkness, one of the gang members managed to escape, said the police.

Noida, December 9
IT Special Economic Zones (SEZs) will soon bring about an employment boom in the National Capital Region (NCR), feel the IT experts.

IT experts feel that IT SEZs will not only bring influx of foreign investment into Noida and Greater Noida, but will also bring about an employment boom in the area. The IT company chiefs are of the view that these IT SEZs should be developed fast.

Last month, Noida Authority had approved allotment of 25 acres of land each to IT companies for SEZs in sectors 143 and 144. A lot of activity was witnessed in IT companies after this allotment. This fact has been termed as the second important innings of IT in Noida belt.

According to Mr Sanjay Kumar Gupta, chief of Tata Consultancy Services which was one of the companies to get 25 acres of land allotment, said after 1997 a little slowdown was witnessed in IT fields as development of companies could not achieve the desired level.

The IT SEZs will now be showcasing IT sector in a new form with a promise of greater benefits, including far more possibilities of employment generation in the IT sector. Tata Consultancy Services alone will require 10,000 IT workers, Mr Gupta said.

Similar views have been expressed by Mr Shakti Nath, chief of Logistix Park–which is again connected with IT sector. The IT SEZs will now accord a new stability to IT sector in Noida.

Logistix Park is one of the companies which were allotted 25 acres of land recently. Mr Shakti Nath says that SEZs will be developed on world standards so that foreign companies may find the working atmosphere and infrastructure attractive in Noida. The foreign investment in IT sector can indeed come as a big relief and benefit for Noida and Greater Noida.

In the days to come, IT special SEZs will work on the pattern of software companies where facilities for starting new activities like business process outsourcing (BPO), knowledge process outsourcing (KPO), education process outsourcing (EPO), etc, will be available.

Noida, December 9
Controversies have often been part of government district hospital in Sector 30, Noida—sometimes over lack of equipment, medicines, power cuts, dilapidated building and at times over the issue of adjusting twice the number of staff members against half the sanctioned posts.

On Friday it was different when Additional Chief Medical Officer and City’s Health Officer had clashed and were seen to use abusive language in full public view. Later, they had almost come to blows.

The whole spectacle was witnessed by the Additional Director, Health Services, who after sometime thought it prudent to step away from the ugly scene.

Additional Director Health Dr N.K. Gupta had come to Noida to attend a meeting along with the Commissioner Meerut Division, Mr Dev Dutt, in the District Magistrate’s office. As Dr Gupta came to visit the district hospital, two senior doctors, keen on oneupmanship, clashed with each other. After sometime Additional Director Dr Gupta and some officials thought it discreet to withdraw themselves from the hospital complex.

A large number of patients, mostly from distant towns and villages were looking confused, not knowing who to contact for treatment.

The Chief Medical Officer had been on leave since Thursday. His work was being looked after by the City’s Health Officer, although the CMO had handed over the charge to Additional Chief Medical officer Dr CM Tyagi. Dr Tyagi also went on leave in the meantime.

So, who would officiate for the CMO became an issue. Many officers had not reconciled to Dr Aruna Ghosh’s appointment as CMO. It has resulted in the division of staff into two warring camps in the district hospital.

Noida, December 9
The owner of a liquor shop, on being refused food at a
dhabha, fired a gunshot at the waiter who is dangling between life and death in a hospital. The owner of the liquor shop fled from the scene after wounding the waiter.

The same man who is said to be a liquor contractor had reportedly shot at the owner of this dhaba a year ago also. He was arrested and sent to jail for a year. He had been released from the jail about a month ago.

Suresh Chauhan runs “Deepak
Dhabha” under Sector 58 police station area. At 2 am on Friday, Malkhan Singh Yadav, owner of a beer shop in the neighbourhood, had come drunk to have dinner at this
dhabha. As the restaurant had already been closed, the waiter Vijay, a resident of Jharkhand, said there was no food available at that hour. Malkhan felt insulted and fired a shot at Vijay with his
revolver.

Malkhan Singh Yadav of Arthla, Khangarpur, fled from the scene, while Vijay was rushed to Fortis Hospital in Sector 62. The police had raided Malkahn’s house but could not find him there. Last year also, police had confiscated Malkhan’s rifle and cancelled its licence.

Noida, December 9
The STD services of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) have suddenly gone down, causing a lot of inconvenience to the public. The BSNL authorities came to know about it only after the subscribers lodged complaints regarding the failure of the services.

Some technical fault in telephone exchange in Sector 19 is reported to have caused this failure.

Though the authorities are not admitting it, the STD services to Jammu, Varanasi, Jalandhar and Panchkula have gone ineffective since Friday evening. This problem is confined to the basic phone so far. It is a two-way fault–neither one could call up these stations from Noida, nor anyone could make call to Noida from these stations.

The worst hit with this failure are the newspaper offices and journalists as the lines to Panchkula, Varanasi, Jalandhar and Jammu, which are important news centres, were down.

BSNL officials said some fault had suddenly affected the STD lines in the telecom exchange last evening which is being corrected.

New Delhi, December 9
The fourth edition of South Asia’s largest exhibition on photography and imaging, which began on Thursday, would come to an end tomorrow.

It had been inaugurated by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in a ceremony in which the guest of honor was Mr Shahidul Alam, online publisher, media activist and photo-journalist.

The 4-day exhibition was organized by ‘Better Photography’ in association with All India Trade and Industry Association (AIPTIA).

Participants at the exhibition included leading companies like Canon, Epson, Fuji, Hewlett Packard, Olympus, Kodak and Nikon. A new addition to the exposition this year was ‘theme areas’, an innovative concept which allowed visitors to step into areas surrounded by different themes.